It Began With A Walrus
by dozy-joe-2000
Summary: What will the Marauders do with the problematic Walrus? Just how sarcastic can a house-elf be? And how angry do you need to make Remus before he actually kills you? The answers lie within. Please read and review, there will be more chapters soon!
1. The Walrus

It Began With a Walrus

(Disclaimer: Anything you recognise from JK Rowling's work, I do not own.)

_Hogwarts_

_January, 1978_

"Okay Sirius. It's important you understand, that we are not angry at you." James Potter said calmly. Sirius Black, standing next to him, thumb and forefinger clamped to the bridge of his nose and his eyes squeezed shut, head hung, gave a half-hearted nod.

"I'm a bit angry with him." Remus Lupin interjected, who had now been shaking his head in disbelief for a very long time.

"No! We are not angry with him!" James said sternly, frowning at Remus. "But we have to ask, you understand don't you?"

"Yeah. Yeah I do." Sirius muttered, his words pained, in part because of his predicament, in part because of the vice-like hangover that gripped his brain.

"Ready?"

"Yes."

"How did the walrus," James began slowly, running a stunned hand through his unkempt black hair, "get in the dormitory?"

A small crowd had gathered, of several other Gryffindor boys of the fifth and sixth years, as well as the three seventh-year Marauders who were present, and two of the others that shared the room, Castor Holmes and Martin Marius.

The walrus, blinking and with the air of a sea-mammal faintly surprised, gave its strange, honking cry, as if to say 'Oh! Isn't this place pleasant. Better than the Arctic, I can tell you'.

At that point, Peter Pettigrew emerged from the attached bathroom, drying his hair with a towel and wearing another around his waist. He looked from the walrus to the gathered crowd, and sighed heavily.

"Oh, thank Merlin! You lot can see it too!" he exclaimed, his relief evident as he continued to carefully towelled his hair dry, not wishing to aggravate his own prodigious hangover. "I thought I was bloody hallucinating! I was terrified, you have no idea..." he trailed off as he went to his bed at the far end of the room and collapsed.

The rather massive walrus honked again and he cringed in pain, as did Sirius.

"Can someone shut it up?" Peter begged. Remus raised his wand.

"_Silencio_."

The walrus opened its yawning mouth to honk a third time, and though it gave it a brave effort, could not produce an audible noise. It seemed badly disappointed, and lowered its head to rest on the stone floor.

"We're waiting, Sirius." James looked at the walrus. It looked dolefully up at him. Sirius took a deep breath.

"I...I don't know, lads. I mean...it being the last day of the Christmas holidays, me and Pete both happened to get back a day early, met up rather than sat at home like. So, we got permission, flooed it, arrived here...and we got into the Firewhiskey."

"And how!" Peter chimed in.

"I remember we were playing exploding snap...then we sent strange messages off to everyone by owl-be expecting those, by the way, no idea what we wrote...and I don't remember after that, and next thing I know I woke up this morning and Bang! Walrus time. Then you guys all arrived..."

There was a short pause.

"Well what the fuck are we going to do with it?" Remus asked, angrily. "Oh, brilliant!" he held an exasperated palm out towards the animal, which had just started eating his bedclothes, the beds having been made by the Elves at some point.

"Maybe it could be a new mascot?" Sirius asked eagerly, looking for a way out and grasping at straws. He turned to look at Remus, desperation in his eyes. "Think about it, Moony!"

"Oh yeah Padfoot!" Moony said, mock-praise hanging thickly in his voice, "Great idea! Nothing says 'Gryffindor courage' like a giant friggin' walrus! We could put it in the common room! Or better yet," he continued with his sarcastic tirade, gesticulating wildly, "We could put it in the corridor in front of the Fat Lady – it could ask for the passwords!" he went silent, having shouted the last words.

There was a long, empty pause while people waited for Sirius's response. It seemed to drag on for entire minutes.

Then Sirius jabbed Remus in the face with his pointed finger.

"Ouch! What are you doing?" bellowed Remus.

"Well," Sirius said, jabbing again, this time getting him in the ear as Remus tried to dodge and fend him off, "I've got you this wound up," he jabbed again, "I may as well try and get you to kill me! That way this isn't my problem anymore!" he tried to jab him again, and Remus dodged back, knocking into a pair of fifth years who were laughing manically, laughter which began to spread like wildfire.

"Stop it Padfoot!" shouted James, holding him away, because Remus looked like he wanted to go for his wand and permanently stick Sirius's arms together or something. Remus took a deep breath, and held out steadying hands.

"Right. People. We have to shout McGonagall, she'll get shut of it no trouble." his tone was even and reasonable, and James knew he was back to normal, steady Remus. He was also bat-shit nuts if he thought James was going to call McGonagall. He pointed at his badge.

"Moony I'm _Head Boy_! We can't go to McGonagall, I'm supposed to _keep order_! I just about get away with minor pranks! If we call McGonagall then it's not going to be 'Oh, that's fine James! You've just got back from the Christmas Holidays, you aren't settled in. There's bound to be a walrus or two, no worries!'" he said, mimicking his Head of House's voice, "It's going to be 'Give the badge back, dickhead. Come on, give it.'"

Another pause.

"McGonagall probably won't call you a dickhead." said Castor Holmes, unhelpfully. James glared at him.

"That's not the poi-"

Remus took another deep, calming breath.

"Okay, Prongs, point taken, point taken. Okay, well presumably, a walrus cannot just appear out of nowhere. That means that someone must have spelled it here, meaning that while Sirius was black-out drunk, he probably Transfigured something." he looked around for anything that seemed to be missing. James's eyes lit up with the revelation.

"Of course, Moony!"

"Hey!" interrupted Peter. All eyes turned to look at him. He was looking blearily over at them.

"Why do you assume that it was Sirius who Transfigured it?" he looked offended. James and Remus looked at each other critically.

"Because, Wormtail, you still haven't got the turtle/teacup thing right, and its seventh year. And that's when you're sober." Remus reeled off. Wormtail stopped looking affronted instantly.

"Yeah, alright I suppose." he rolled over to look at the wall. James shook his head.

"Which means," Remus continued, "that if we can find Sirius's wand, we can check what the last spell was, find out how he did it, and thus, find out how to reverse it." he finished on a logical note, and James nodded and looked to Sirius.

"Right, Padfoot. Where's your wand?" James asked. Sirius went over to his bed, careful to avoid stepping on the walrus's flipper, and began to rummage around in the crumpled sheets, under his pillow, and then under his bed, until he produced it with a flourish. He passed it to Remus, who put touched the tip of his wand to Sirius's.

"_Priori Incantatem_." he intoned, and a faint smoky image of a bottle refilling materialised, before dissipating. Remus frowned.

"Ah." he sounded puzzled.

"Ah what?" James asked, feeling dread creep up in his stomach.

"The last spell your wand performed was a Refilling Charm, Sirius." Remus looked sideways at him.

"Oh yeah! I remember that one too, we only had half a bottle of Ogden's. Yeah, that was definitely pre-walrus." he murmured, looking bashfully at his friend.

"And there's no chance you could have Transfigured something into the walrus, and _then _decided you needed even more Firewhiskey?" Remus asked hopefully.

"Remus," Sirius replied, skeptically, "If I had consumed sufficient Firewhiskey to think that this," he gestured at the walrus, "Was a good plan, then I think I was probably too drink to consume more Firewhiskey, and look," he gestured at an empty bottle of Ogden's next to his bed, "none left over."

"Well then where the hell did it come from?" James groaned, looking pleadingly at Wormtail, who had turned back to them.

"Don't look at me, I don't even remember exploding snap." he said flatly.

There was a loud 'crack' and everybody jumped, while Sirius and Peter moaned in pain. A house-elf had appeared, clad in a potato-sack in which he had cut holes for his thin arms. He had broad, brown eyes, and big, pointy ears that were currently drooping. It had a hand clasped to its forehead.

"Excuse me, Masters! Wobbly is sorry he is so late! Wobbly wishes he had not had so many butterbeers last night!" it said in a squeaky voice.

"Oh yeah!" Sirius erupted, "Wobbly was here too, look!" he jabbed a finger at the tidy ranks of empty butterbeer bottles extending halfway along the back wall of the dormitory, two deep, with a third row half-started.

"How do you forget a drunk house-elf?" asked one of the fifth years, "No matter how drunk you get?" he found himself ignored however as one of the sixth years spoke over him.

"There's barely any alcohol in butterbeer, though!" the boy said, and found himself under Wobbly's baleful gaze.

"'Tis enough for a house-elf, Master."

"And he put away about fifteen, it was pretty heroic for a house-elf!" Sirius laughed Some onlookers joined in.

Wobbly saluted, then went to start picking up his butterbeer bottles.

"Wobbly?" Remus asked, and the elf stopped, shaking his aching head to clear it, as though trying to make enough room in there for Remus's words.

"Yes Master Remus?"

"Do you have any idea where the walrus came from?"

The elf looked at the walrus as though only just noticing it.

"Yes, of course. Master Sirius and Master Peter asked for it."

They looked at the elf, stunned.

"And you just...got one for them?" James asked, amazed.

"Why did you listen to us?" Sirius asked, even more incredulous.

The elf considered his words.

"The Masters were very insistent." he answered.

"Oh, Wobbly!" Sirius exclaimed, "We're always insistent! But we can't be trusted!"

James couldn't believe his ears. How was nobody asking where the hell the house-elf had gotten a walrus?

"Wobbly!" he interrupted, "Where did you get it from? Do you just have these things lying around the kitchens or something?"

The elf looked at him, shaking his head and sighing as though frustrated.

"Master James knows, how when he comes down to the kitchens, we house-elves seem to be able to get you _anything_ you ask for?" he looked at Prongs expectantly.

"Yeah?" he said, feeling stupid under the elf's scrutiny. Wobbly forged on, as though he was explaining to a fool.

"Well, Master James, that is not a clever trick we's worked out – _Wobbly_ is not completely sure how he found the walrus. Wobbly just knows it took ten elves to float the walrus up here." he continued picking up empty butterbeer bottles. The crowd burst once again into laughter as the elf finished.

"Sometimes I hate that we know the one sarcastic house-elf." James said flatly, as Sirius laughed at him, pointing.

"You just got roasted!" he was choking, and James shot him a glare. Remus attempted to cut through the noisy laughter.

"Wobbly," Remus called again, and Wobbly looked around once more, impatiently this time, and with an armful of bottles, "Can you take it away?"

Wobbly fixed him with the same pitying look he had given James.

"Oh yes, Master Remus! Of course Wobbly can! Wobbly will just clap his hands, and make the walrus disappear, shall he?" the elf allowed the bottles to clatter to the ground. He clapped his hands smartly, twice. The walrus looked around at him, and silent-honked again.

"Oh, no, Masters!" Wobbly said, looking at his hands with mock-surprise, "Wobbly's clapping must be broken!"

Sirius had collapsed onto his bed, howling with laughter, and the crowd laughed harder still.

"I'll take that as a no then, shall I?" Remus asked through gritted teeth.

"Well, you tell me Master Remus," the elf began again, and Remus face-palmed, "just off the top of Master Remus's head; where does you put a walrus in a castle, where no-ones will find it?" he paused, then leant against the wall when Remus didn't answer, just kept his face pressed into his palm, "Go ahead," he continued once he had leaned, "Wobbly can wait."

Sirius couldn't breathe, so great was his amusement, and was making strange, strangled sounds in his throat, his face turning red.

"Point. Taken. Wobbly." Remus said slowly, muffled by his hand.

Wobbly nodded, firmly, and then carried on tidying.

The crowd began to disperse back to their dormitories, their laughter dying as they made their way down the stairs. Even Sirius had composed himself, except for a few chuckles, by the time Wobbly disappeared with another loud _crack _and his first load of bottles. Tears of mirth still streamed down his cheeks.

"I...love...that...elf." he gasped, then, more evenly, "Wobbly is a bloody _rockstar_. He's awesome."

"Yeah, great." Remus said, unconvinced, shutting the dormitory door and leaning against it, his attention still on the problematic walrus.

"Well," James began, dropping onto his bed and leaning back on his elbows, "we'll just have to keep it here until we figure out what to do with it."

Remus looked resigned to this, and sighed.

There was a long, empty silence, which Peter shattered after a few minutes of careful consideration, during which he had been staring thoughtfully at the walrus. It still chomped at Remus's sheets, and Remus was fixated on its tusks.

"Where's it going to shit?" Peter asked the room.

James, Remus and Sirius looked at each-other in alarm.


	2. The Bit After the Walrus

_The Bit after the Walrus_

_James!_

_Peter just fell halfway down the stairs! It was awesome, but he's really hurt and calling for help, so I'd better wrap this up fast. DRAGONS! DRAAAAAAAAAAGONS! Ha ha!_

"Padfoot. This is literally the most useless piece of parchment in the world." James said through a mouthful of cereal. A pair of fourth-year girls opposite him at the Gryffindor table paused in their giggling long enough to shoot him a look of utter disgust. He gave a mighty swallow and looked around, surprised to see Remus next to him.

"He's not here yet mate, I've got him on walrus-shit duty, permanently." the sandy-haired boy stated matter-of-factly, and had a mouthful of tea.

"Good going. Where's Peter?"

"Dunno mate, he said something about the library. Probably forgot to do his Charms homework again."

"Aren't you his human homework-planner?" James gave him a puzzled glance before becoming invested in his cereal once more.

"Usually, Prongs, but he forgets so much that some of it's bound to slip through the cracks." Remus rubbed his eyes tiredly, and started piling sausages and bacon onto his plate. "Is that your random message from Sirius and Pete?"

"Yeah," James handed it to him, "Did you get yours yet?"

Remus scanned the note and smirked.

"Yeah, it was a cracker too, it just said 'Bollocks I've written the wrong note'. Didn't even have my name on it. The owl reached me back in the tower. Those owls are far too smart for their own good, I mean, how did they find me without my _name_?."

James grinned and scanned his timetable, that was pinned under his glass of pumpkin juice.

"Shit, double potions first. I just _know _I'll fall back to sleep in that humid bloody room." James yawned dejectedly, and Remus smiled.

"Oh well, just don't fall asleep in your cauldron, try for the desk instead."

"Yeah I'll give it a go. Besides, there are some consolations." James replied, eyes scanning the rest of his day. Double potions, free, DADA, free, then History of Magic and Transfiguration.

"Lily Evans is not going to go out with you mate. You'd do better putting your energies into thinking of a way for us to get rid of our new, gigantic, inconvenient pet." Remus pointed his fork sternly at him, and James swatted it aside with his own, scowling.

"Persistence, Remus, persistence!" he insisted, jabbing his own fork in Remus's direction.

"Ah, the stalker's motto! Is that from the handbook?" Remus laughed, and knocked aside James's fork.

At which point, they both had the same idea.

"Stalker? I demand that you back your words with your sword, sir!" James declared, standing. Remus followed suit.

"Gladly, sir. En garde!" Remus stepped over the bench, fork in hand, and James stepped out too, to the general amusement of the rest of the breakfasters, with the exception of the Slytherin table's scowls. Remus lunged, and James deftly parried, countering with a savage riposte that bit into Remus's sleeve.

"First blood to you, James, but I will have satisfaction!" Remus crowed, and lunged again. James stepped back, holding his left arm behind his back like a fencer, swept the fork-strike aside and gave ground as Remus came on. They battled to the end of the table, where James slipped in a tea-slick and lost his footing. Driving home his advantage, Remus attacked. James onto the bench again, between two startled first-years, who looked terrified. Cornered, Remus began to thrust and cut in earnest, scenting victory. James parried again and again, but he was tiring, and then...

"Oh for Merlin's sake will you stop pratting around!"

Both boys looked to their right, having thoroughly enjoyed themselves, still poised. The voice that had made them pause belonged to an irate-looking blonde sixth-year girl called Eleri DeMarco, Remus's current girlfriend, though James often thought of her more like his mother. She was short, nice-looking with a round, pleasant face, though right now, she was scolding.

"You look insane!"

"We aren't insane, love, we're just..."Remus trailed off, unable to think exactly what they 'just' were.

"Committed to the joke." James pitched in helpfully. Remus nodded, smiling broadly.

Eleri mumbled something about 'needing committing' while James picked himself up. Then she smiled broadly, and threw her arms around Remus's neck.

"I missed you!" she announced, "Did you miss me?"

"Every second love, you know that." Remus replied and drew her into an even tighter hug. She giggled happily.

"Oh give me strength." James muttered and returned to his breakfast.

"You're just jealous because you aren't getting any!" Remus shouted after him.

"Bullshit!" James returned, though internally he accepted that Remus was absolutely right. He stole Remus's tea the moment he sat down and counted it as a win, to offset this realisation.

Sirius emerged a few minutes later, about the same time as teachers began appearing at the head table. James noticed with faint interest that Dumbledore didn't appear to be there. He stole Remus's seat immediately.

"Remus with Eleri?" he asked, magicking the plate that Moony had left clean and beginning anew with a breakfast device all his own – The Heartinator.

He took a piece of fried bread and layered it with bacon, fried egg and sausage, added another slice of bread, and then stacked still more on top of that before rounding it off with a third and final piece of fried bread – thus creating a sandwich guaranteed to give you heart disease by the age of twenty-one.

"Heartinator this morning? Must have been a rough one." James said lightly.

"Have you ever cleaned up walrus-shit, James?"

"Can't say I have."

Sirius looked at him, his death-sandwich halfway to his mouth.

"Are you aware, James," he began, punctuating with a gesture of the Heartinator, "Of just _how much _a walrus is capable of shitting in one go?"

"I am in fact blissfully unaware of the exact quantity. I would imagine a fair bit?" James answered, hoping that the topic would change, and soon. He pushed his breakfast away and contented himself with drinking his swiped tea.

"Pray, James, that you remain blissfully unaware. And don't presume to know how my morning is going, in the meantime."

James laughed. Sirius in a bad mood was really more fun than it should be.

"You're pleasant today."

"And you're an arsehole."

James drew his wand surreptitiously and looked for Sirius's book-bag. It was beneath his seat.

"_Diffindo_." he whispered, and the Severing Charm did its work swiftly, opening the seam at the bottom of the bag. He stealthily pocketed his wand. Sirius, who was now engaged in a battle to the death with his sandwich, noticed nothing.

"Yes, I certainly am." he muttered with a grin, and began eating.

"What?" Sirius asked through a mouthful.

"I am an arsehole." James smiled and looked at him.

"O...kay then." Sirius, who had wolfed down his sandwich in record time, looked at him uncertainly, and got to his feet. "Coming to potions?"

"In a minute mate, there's something I've got to see first." James smiled serenely at him.

"You're weird today." Sirius said, suspiciously, and picked up his book bag, turning to go. He made it three metres. Three short metres.

The bag tore, as planned. Books scattered out everywhere, along with a number of other things – his cauldron, which rang chaotically, a couple of glass beakers that shattered, and the cherry on the cake, several extremely hazardous magical fireworks. Which went off, for like, no reason. Great fountains of blue, gold and red sparks shot off in every direction. The clustered and repeated detonations drowned out the worst of Sirius's barrage profanity. It was mostly directed at Prongs, though he never turned to face him at any point. By the time everyone had finished ducking, he had quite exhausted his rage, and was gasping for breath. James was gasping for breath too, but for quite a different reason.

Sirius turned slowly, and looked up at the head table, where a sleepy-looking McGonagall had her elbows on the table and her face in her hands, the very picture of a broken woman.

"Apologies, Prof..." he began, but she cut him off, pointing resolutely at the entrance to the Great Hall.

"Just...go." she answered, her voice hollow.

Sirius glared at James, who was recovering himself, and then about-faced and marched from the hall. James looked back towards where Remus would now be sitting. He was leaning over the table to look past a bemused Eleri. He winked and gave a brief thumbs-up, and James nodded, saying nothing – plausible deniability was everything in his newfound role. Abandoning the remains of his eventful breakfast, he got to his feet and pulled his own bag out from under the bench. He moved over to the debris that Sirius had left behind and repaired the beakers using magic. Then he stacked the books in the cauldron. He used a Featherweight Charm on it, and took it up in his right hand, grabbing the beakers with his left.

He caught up to Sirius outside the Potions dungeon. Everyone else had already gone inside, and he could hear them through the part-open door. Sirius smirked as he approached, his ill mood quite forgotten.

"Nice one mate, though my own predilection for fireworks did rather help you out. Sorry I snapped at you."

James waved his apology away and handed him his cauldron and his beakers. Padfoot pushed them back into his newly-repaired book-bag.

"Not at all mate, not at all. How's Slughorn looking?"

"Seems to be in a pretty jovial mood, might have an easy one this morning."

"Excellent."

They entered only a minute or so late, and went to an empty desk towards the back. James scanned the faces, his heart sinking. She wasn't there. He couldn't see her anyway.

Suddenly, she emerged from behind the neighbouring desk to the one he and Sirius were making for, where she had evidently been looking for something in her bag. He couldn't see her face yet, but he could have recognised the perfect shining curtain of titian hair that obscured it anywhere. As he watched, she flipped it back over her shoulder in an easy, practised movement. It caught the flickering torchlight for a moment and James lost his breath, enchanted. She didn't look at him, but he lost himself in the greenness of her eyes as she scanned the open page of _Advanced Potion Making _that sat before her. Her full, red lips mouthed something that was written on the page, and he felt a smile start at the corners of his mouth. He longed to brush her porcelain cheek with his fingertips, and as his smile spread he realised that he could see Sirius sat at their targeted desk, smirking.

In that moment, and to his utter horror, he realised that he had stopped moving and was openly staring at the object of his affection.

The smile sputtered and died as he slid sickeningly back into reality. People looked at him in total confusion from all around, except for the few who had seen where he was looking, who were openly snorting their derision. His cheeks colouring, he put his head down and rushed past Lily's desk, whom she was sharing with her friend Marian, and sat heavily next to Padfoot.

"You bastard, why didn't you nudge me or something? You know how I get around her!" he whispered furiously. Sirius sniggered.

"Yeah mate, but I owed you for this morning. Now we're even." his smirk widened at Prongs's distress.

"No it isn't! It's never even! Don't you get it? I did something cruel to you for snapping at me. We should have been even then! But now you felt you owed me for that, so you've done something back, and that means that later on I'll probably do something to you and it never ends! When we're fucking ninety we'll be smacking each other on the head with our walking sticks!" James frantically hissed, gesturing wildly with his arms and drawing even more attention.

"And besides! What do you mean even? Because of you we are in possession of a walrus, which I can only assume has to be contraband, though I doubt seriously that it's ever come up before. We could prank you continually for the next ten years and we wouldn't be even!"

Sirius paled as though that thought hadn't occurred to him, and looked away, reaching for his own potions book, while emptying the others from his cauldron. James pulled out his own copy, and saw Slughorn return from the ingredients cupboard. His jolly bulk could barely squeeze through the door, and his cheeks were red with the effort of remaining mobile. A cauldron simmered on his desk, a light fog exuding from it. The room was as stifling as normal, between the lit torches and the heat of the fire beneath his cauldron, and their heavy robes. As he began to speak, James wondered vaguely whether he was related to their sea-mammal friend, however distantly, and then he shot a look at Lily. He wondered for what had to be the thousandth time how she managed to make her school uniform so alluring. Those eyes that drew him in were focussed attentively on Slughorn, her arms crossed on the desk as she leaned forward.

"Well ladies and gentlemen today I thought we'd have a go at the Oblivious Unction, so please turn to page..."

The rest of his sentence was lost on James, who had much better things to pay attention to. His heart raged in his chest as she pushed a rebellious lock of hair behind the pale shell of her ear. She bit her lip in concentration and James's heart could have stopped.

The rest of the lesson melted away in this fashion. He was able to make a passable potion, which was good considering he looked at his cauldron perhaps twice. Sirius made his cauldron explode. Again. James was beginning to wonder if he wasn't doing it on purpose, but even if he was, his shrapnel-wounds were real enough and so he was excused to go to the hospital wing. Professor Slughorn vanished the mess.

Lily, of course, excelled and she flashed Sluggy a truly brilliant smile when he complimented her on it; James found himself wishing more than anything that just once she would smile like that at him. Before James knew it people were tidying away and filing from the classroom and as he emerged into the cool of the corridor, he dashed after Lily and Marian who were chatting animatedly.

"Evans!" he called, running a hand through his unruly hair, anxiety overtaking him.

She looked around, puzzled, but thankfully little remained of the old animosity he had found there. Since he and Sirius had calmed down, stopped picking on Snape, and generally cut back on their school-devastating bad behaviour, he had found she generally had more time for him than in the past, and that was just fine with James.

"Hey, Potter." she answered, giving him a slight smile, that, while it held none of the brilliance she bestowed upon those she found deserving, still made his breath catch in his throat. Marian rolled her eyes and smirked as the flustered boy drew level.

"How was your Christmas?" he asked, casting around for something witty to say and finding that part of his brain frozen and cowering.

"Interesting thanks. Met my sister's fiancé. As predicted, he _is _a dick, but if he cheers her up then he's aces with me. It'd be a change to see her...well...anything except mean, so..." she trailed off with a grimace and James chuckled.

"Real breath of fresh air is she? Sparkling personality?"

It was Lily's turn to laugh, and his stomach did a backflip.

"Yeah you could say that. How was yours? Any catastrophes?" she looked mischievous.

"One or two, you know. Whenever me and Sirius are within a kilometre of each other, trouble just sort of happens. We don't go looking for it, it just knows where we are."

She laughed again and he felt unsteady.

"I've noticed. Anything particularly crazy?" her voice was musical; it lilted in a way that he just couldn't find words to describe.

"We set Remus on fire," he admitted, and she looked at him in disbelief, "Really, we did, but Remus is fairly level-headed, so once he was done with the 'Oh shit I'm on fire' part of things, he leaped into the pond behind my house and we were like, 'situation resolved'."

"How do you manage these things?" Marian interrupted, and James grinned. Before he could respond, the victim of their pyromania jumped in. He had turned the corner ahead, and was closing on them.

"Suffice it to say, that James here, and Sirius especially, should _never _have received the gift of magic. Whatever greater being determines who gets magic and who doesn't, really dropped the ball."

James laughed at that, as did Marian.

"Also easy access to the drinks cabinet is a major factor." he added himself, and Remus shrugged.

"What have you two got now?" James asked, just to keep the conversation going.

"Charms." Marian said straight away, and pulled a face. "I hate Charms."

"Just because you're rubbish at them." Lily jibed, and Marian straightened up jocularly.

"I am not rubbish! I just choose not to perform because I don't like the subject."

"Yeah, whatever." Lily pushed, and Marian snorted.

Remus now punched James gently in the shoulder.

"You're needed mate. Where's Sirius?" he looked solemn, suddenly. The girls looked as though their interest had been piqued.

"Blew up his cauldron again. Bit of pewter got lodged in his cheek, some more in his hands. Pomfrey will have had him sorted by now though, he's probably dossing somewhere." James replied, getting serious too.

"What are you guys up to now?" Lily asked cautiously.

"Don't worry, Head Girl, nothing of school-shattering severity, just a minor bind Sirius and Peter dumped us in last night." James answered. Doubt was etched into every line of her face.

"Okay," she said grudgingly, "But you are being careful aren't you, Potter, because we've got a Prefect's meeting later, and you need to be there, not in detention, or suddenly devoid of your badge."

"Don't worry, Lily, I'll make sure he keeps the stupidity to a minimum." Remus clapped a hand on James's shoulder, and Lily dropped her worries.

"Okay, Remus, I trust you at least. Later, guys." she gave them a little wave as the girls continued on to their next lesson.

"James."

James remained unaware of Remus, just watched her leave instead.

"James!"

James was in a world all his own, a place that could only be called Lily-ville. Until Remus punched him in the shoulder again, only much harder. He still barely reacted.

"What?" he asked, dreamily.

"You're wearing that goofy smile again. Its horrifying."

"Sorry."

Sure enough, when they reached Gryffindor Tower, they found Sirius 'dossing' on the big sofa in front of the fire, his feet up, his wounds healed, and a bottle of butterbeer in his hand; the common room was otherwise entirely empty of students. He sighed as he raised it to his lips and swigged. As they entered through the tunnel that led to the portrait-hole, he twisted around to look at the door, almost slopping butterbeer everywhere.

"Mates-ho! How's it going? Good lesson, James?"

"Yeah, great." James answered hollowly. "Remus has been filling me in, and I reckon he's onto a pretty good plan."

"Plan?"

"Yeah, Padfoot. The Plan you made necessary when you demanded Wobbly provide you with a gargantuan sea-creature." Remus chipped in sardonically.

"Ah! A Plan! I'm with you." he wrenched his legs around and onto the floor and jumped to his feet in a way he obviously intended to seem 'ninja'. He dropped into a sort of martial-arts stance.

"Come on then lads, I'm ready for anything, lay it on me."

"Not that easy I'm afraid, Padfoot. Dormitory, if you please." Remus pointed, and Sirius obeyed, scampering up the stairs to the seventh-year dormitory, Remus and James close behind.

Their good friend the silenced walrus was now in the corner in a sort of den they had constructed for him out of sheets, and two chairs that provided support for a 'roof', which was just another blanket. It seemed happy enough, and let out a mammoth 'honk' that was entirely wasted.

"Hello, Domingo!" Sirius announced happily, prancing over to the walrus and, carefully avoiding the tusks, patting its head.

"Domingo?" Remus inquired, disbelieving, but he cut across Sirius when he opened his mouth to answer. "It doesn't matter."

Peter lay on his bed, reading a book with a gaudy cover entitled _How To Pick Up Witches_.

"Okay, everyone listen up!" Remus commanded like a drill sergeant. James sat heavily on his bed, the one closest to the door, and listened. Sirius continued fussing the walrus, and Peter set his book down on his chest.

"The answer came to me fairly swiftly today, and here it is: the Room of Requirement."

"Of course!" James put in, amazed they hadn't thought of it sooner.

"Exactly. Our problem lies in getting it there."

The others considered this.

"Wobbly said it took ten of them to get it here, but maybe a Featherweight Charm would get it there?" Peter mused, surprising everyone.

"Yeah, that could work. Make it light and just drag it there? Not a bad call Pete." Sirius congratulated him.

Remus nodded appreciatively.

"Does a Featherweight Charm work on people and animals?" James put in, wary.

"I assume so. Nobody's ever told us that it doesn't." Sirius answered.

"Move aside a moment, Sirius." Moony muttered, and as Padfoot did so, he performed the Charm.

"Now try and drag him." he continued.

Sirius did as he was told, and found the walrus was no lighter. He simply heaved at its flipper while it looked at him, mystified.

"Bugger. No luck. Good shout though, Pete." Sirius said, tilting his head. Wormtail shrugged, and went back to his book.

"In that case, we''ll have to levitate dear Domingo, which means it'll be all the more noticeable." Remus rubbed the back of his neck.

"Yeah, a flying walrus will definitely draw attention, so we should probably move it at night." said James.

"Yeah, we'll have to. This is going to be tricky, but I think we can probably do it tonight. Right after everyone goes to bed, we'll do it. Agreed?" Remus looked around the room. He received murmurs of assent.

"Right, that's sorted then." he stated, but he sounded less than convinced.

The rest of the day passed in a blur, all the marauders failing to pay attention to their lessons, instead thinking about how the Plan would go. For all four, DADA with Professor Tyburn (a tall, thin, dark-haired man whom Sirius swore blind was a vampire), which they ordinarily hugely enjoyed, merely disappeared, an hour of their lives they would never get back. This was true even for James, who was separated by two desks from where Lily was sitting, and so had no unbroken line of sight. The subsequent free period was spent in hurried discussion of the shortest route to the Room of Requirement. It was only a quick jaunt along the seventh floor corridor to where the Room appeared, but Remus's reasoning was that they should dodge and weave a bit, go through some other floors. They dismissed this in the end, reasoning that it just gave them more opportunity to get spotted. By the time they had agreed on a unanimous decision, the four were late for History of Magic, which in itself was not a problem, because Binns would likely never notice.

All the same, they pounded through the corridors in the direction of the classroom led by a James Potter gripped with a sense of urgency borne solely of respect for his teacher, something that was happening far too often recently for his liking. They took the main stairs, praying that they'd catch the staircases in a rare period of dormancy. Against all the odds, this seemed to be the case, and they reached the first floor in relatively short order. They turned a corner at the foot of the final flight, and, breathing hard, rushed on past empty classrooms in both walls. At the bottom, the corridor turned left, and they followed it. The History of Magic classroom, 4F, was just down and on the right, and as they burst through the door, Binns didn't even look up, but continued to drone on about the differences between the Wizard's Council and its modern-day successor the Wizengamot.

Sirius and Remus leapt at the only empty table. Peter, looking disgruntled, dropped in next to Robert Saxon, who moved over to accommodate him. That left one seat, a seat that James was hugely pleased with; because it was next to a certain redhead that was bowed over the desk scribbling notes furiously as he approached.

"Alright Evans?" he murmured, his cheeks colouring as she looked up at him, startled.

"Potter." she replied shortly as she returned to her note-taking, and James understood that now was not 'awkward chatting time' in her timetable. Instead, he pulled out his books and parchment and began to scratch notes of his own, interspersed with pointless doodles. He kept this up for a good ten minutes, a good effort as far as he was concerned in one of Binns's lessons. His mind wandered as he stared straight at a point on his parchment. He idly scratched his parchment with his quill to make it look as though he was doing something, a token ruse that had never failed before; in his head, he was on the shore of the lake closest to the castle, sitting with his back against a broad, gnarled old tree, and Lily was there, laughing with him, leaning into him with his arm around her shoulders. It was a pleasant daydream, and one he was often the willing victim of.

It was slow going but the minutes steadily crawled by, and before he knew it, Binns seemed to be wrapping up. He jolted back to reality and looked blearily around, yawning. Peter was openly snoring, face-down on the desk. Saxon was fighting to control fits of laughter. Sirius was fixated on the back wall, and even Remus next to him had lost all his prodigious diligence in the face of Binns's unremitting fact-assault. The other students in the class all were in similar catatonic states, except for, he noticed with mild confusion, Lily, who was looking embarrassedly down at his own parchment. She saw him looking and immediately cast her eyes down at her own notes, blushing.

James looked down, and saw that the right-hand edge of his roll of parchment was sparsely covered in things he hadn't realised he'd been scrawling.

All of them consisted of two characters. He felt ill.

'L.E.'.

He had been absent-mindedly drawing her initials and worse, she had realised it.

He felt himself blush too, more fiercely even than Lily. He hurriedly scraped his paper off the desk and pushed it haphazardly into his bag, and others seemed to take this as the cue for packing away themselves.

"Oh!" Binns exclaimed, as though mildly surprised to see them, "Yes, I suppose you can go..."

There was a rush of movement, and Lily didn't look at him the whole time she was replacing her books in her bag.

"Hey, Lily, you finished for the day?" he asked, trying to act as though nothing had happened.

"Oh yeah, you?" she replied in a strange, hearty tone.

"Yeah...I mean no! Transfiguration, yet." James cursed his stupidity.

She muttered something like 'see you later', and then rushed out of the classroom. Remus and Peter were done too, and headed back to the dormitory to start preparations, so as he and Sirius both made their way to Transfiguration with their long-suffering head of house, he imparted his humiliating episode to his friend with the air of someone who felt he thoroughly deserved a ribbing. To his surprise, however, Padfoot had his 'sympathetic' head on, and clapped him on the shoulder as they walked. This close to the end of the day, their book-bags seemed ten times heavier, their exuberance giving way to intensely not giving a toss about the next lesson.

"Bad luck Prongs mate. Don't know why she's so embarrassed though, personally; you've been asking her out pretty much solidly since our fourth year."

"Yeah, I was wondering about that, too." James had rarely been so confused. He had never made his affection unclear. Now he wondered if it had always been his _sincerity _that she found wanting. The thought didn't give him a good feeling. Had he really been his own worst enemy?

He had never been good with sincere, or vulnerable. It was a trait he and Sirius shared, and it was one of the things that bonded them – there had even been times, after a few Firewhiskies, that they had talked openly about things he would never have spoken about to anyone else. It was as though their issues with appearing vulnerable made them kindred spirits – as though they could be completely truthful with each other, while presenting a united front to the rest of the world. He had often disclosed to Sirius the strength of his feelings for Lily, and somehow only now did it occur to him that it might appear from the outside as something entirely different.

Now he saw that it hadn't just been his immaturity, his unreliability, his disregard for the rules – it was his own flawed outlook.

His heart sunk to the bottom of his chest. He was about to voice this, an unprecedented move when not fuelled by Firewhiskey, even between him and Sirius, but then the classroom was upon them, and McGonagall was admonishing them for something or other, and for an hour they practised Conjuring, the art of 'Transfiguring' something from nothing at all. The classroom erupted with bursts of blue fire, exact duplicates of people's desks and book-bags, and bunches of colourful flowers.

By the time it was all over, James had a leek hanging from one ear, and Sirius was covered in what looked like confetti. Woefully, Professor McGonagall magicked the leek away, and sheepishly they left.

Their earlier topic forgotten for the moment, they hurried back to the Gryffindor common room where they found that it was still busy. Peter stood at the back, eyeing everyone shiftily. They made straight for him, and he smiled and waved.

"Alright lads? Just waiting until everyone clears out. Remus is in the dorm with Castor and Martin."

"Exploding snap?" Sirius asked him, and Pete nodded eagerly. The two sat at a small, round table in the corner and began their game while James took the stairs two at a time and entered the seventh-year dormitory, chucking his book-bag on his bed. The walrus gave a loud honk and made him jump immediately. Martin laughed.

"Sorry James, we lifted Remus's spell earlier, we thought it was cruel to leave him silent any longer." he said, and continued with the essay he was writing, the parchment leaning on the solid cover of a large book.

"Probably a good call, I didn't even think about it." James couldn't deny that 'Domingo' as Sirius had dubbed him, definitely seemed happier.

"How's the common room looking?" Remus asked absent-mindedly as he fed the walrus some fish scraps he had fetched from the kitchens. They all knew they didn't have to hide the beast from the Gryffindors, at least not the boys – the girls had not seen it yet, and the fewer people knew the better. They were using their own common room as an indicator as to how many other students would be up throughout the school.

"Packed mate. However, if we skip dinner, then we can get grub from the kitchens later, and the school should be nice and clear – plus if we do get caught, punishment will be correspondingly less severe."

Remus mulled it over for a second.

"Yeah, nice one, I like the sound of that. You've got to tell Sirius we're missing dinner though." he grinned broadly.

"Remind me to have my wand handy." James joked back.

Dinner rolled around in no time, and after Sirius had cleared up a final flurry of walrus leavings, as they were now politely known, Remus, James and Peter levitated the creature.

"_Wingardium Leviosa_!" they cried in unison and, looking as though it was enjoying itself immensely, the beast floated into the air. Martin and Castor remained behind, insisting that in this venture, the Marauders were on their own. Sirius led the way, the 'pointman' as he put it; he also felt he was more suitable for this role because he was, quote, 'Totally ninja'.

"Okay lads, easy does it!" James said quietly, and they began to descend the staircase to the common room, James leading behind Sirius, as they eased the Walrus around the corners. Sirius was already exaggeratedly sneaking through the common room below, towards the portrait-hole. The room was empty, and so he slid over tables and vaulted chairs completely unnecessarily. As they crossed the room, they grew in confidence, and so increased their pace.

Sirius opened the portrait-hole and leapt through dramatically, his head turning left and right.

"All clear, hurry up." he said, then forward-rolled a metre or two down the corridor, springing up like something from a bad spy movie.

They manoeuvred Domingo lower, and through the narrow passage behind the Fat Lady. As they emerged, they heard a shocked gasp from their right, and, jumping, startled, they all turned to look to their right.

And saw Lily and Marian, joined by their friends Wendy and Jessica, standing stock-still and staring at the strange scene before them.


	3. Caught in Possession of a Walrus

_Caught in Possession of a Walrus_

(Disclaimer: The song that Lily hums, and James plays in this chapter is _Wish You Were Here_, by the immortal Pink Floyd, whom we should all take the time to revere at least once a day, and I in no way own it lol)

For a long time, they just stared at each other.

"Hello, ladies." Remus said politely. They didn't reply.

"You guys are supposed to be at dinner!" Peter yelped.

"We...needed...to..." Wendy began lamely, her straight black hair swishing back and forth as she looked around her friends, "Book-bags." she finished, waving hers around.

"Oh. We didn't plan for that, James." Remus looked at James seriously, his brow furrowed.

"No mate, we didn't." he answered, then turned to the Head Girl, who had still not taken her eyes off Domingo. "Now it's important that you realise, Evans, that this is not what it looks like."

Lily found her voice.

"R-really? Because it looks like you're levitating a walrus along the seventh-floor corridor." her voice was a little shrill. James looked at his friends bashfully.

"Well I suppose in that case, it's exactly what it looks like. Except Sirius isn't levitating, he's being a ninja." he replied dumbly. Sirius nodded, and gave a little wave.

There were a few more seconds of tense silence as James wondered exactly how Lily would react. He was fairly sure the other girls would go with her either way. Seconds dragged into minutes.

"I'm not going to ask." she said ultimately. James watched her carefully to see if this was good or bad.

"I'm not going to ask. I presume you're getting rid of it?"

"Yes," James said, relieved at the way the conversation was going, "Yes, we're taking it to the Room of Requirement, where we can conjure it somewhere to stay. The Room can't do food though, because of Gamp's Law of Elemental Transfiguration, so we'll have to keep it fed until we can do something more permanent."

James noted that Lily didn't immediately ask what the Room of Requirement was, bur filed it away for later.

"Okay," Lily murmured, and then, to James's joyful astonishment, "Need a hand?"

"Can't hurt to have a few more lookouts, maybe a couple more levitators." Remus answered quickly, and the girls nodded. Lily and Jessica stepped forward with their wands out, while Marian remained at the corner to watch their backs. Wendy went off ahead with Sirius, who was still cartwheeling and rolling, inspiring much merriment in the pretty, dark-haired girl.

"Bloody hell." James smirked.

"What?" Lily asked, now next to him in the small group of levitators.

"Sirius. He never turns it off." he told her, still smiling.

"Then they're well-suited, Wendy's the same." she opined, joining him in a smile. He felt that familiar fluttering in his stomach. He noticed up-close that her face was heart-shaped and thought it somewhat appropriate.

The walrus gave a happy cry as they neared their destination.

"Go to it, Prongs. We'll wait." Sirius said as they clustered around the empty stretch of wall.

He lowered his wand and replaced it in his pocket before he shut his eyes tight and marched up and down three times in front of it, thinking something he never thought he would have to think when summoning the Room.

_I need somewhere to hide a walrus. Somewhere that'll be a suitable habitat._

There was a collective intake of breath, and he knew it had worked. He opened his eyes, and grasped the handle of the varnished door, thrusting it inwards. The room beyond was unusual even by the room's standards. There was a pool several metres deep in the floor that gave off a distinct smell of salt-water. The room was also extremely cold-so cool in fact that his breath was misting in front of his face. He shivered involuntarily and peered out the door to where the rest waited.

"Come on, then! Lets get him good and hidden, then we'll sort something out with Wobbly about feeding it."

Complying readily, the troop of Gryffindors floated Domingo the walrus into the room and placed him in the pool with a slight splash before pocketing their wands. The walrus rolled over in the water, then clambered to the side of the chilled pool and gave final, impressed honk that made them all laugh before they backed out and closed the door tightly behind them, whereupon it vanished.

"I'll miss Domingo, he was a good sort." Sirius said dreamily, and a little sadly. Wendy awww-ed him and patted his arm. He forgot about his distress easily enough however when he realised that they could still make dinner before it finished.

"Right then people!" he clapped his hands, "Who else is up for the end of dinner?"

He received a chorus of affirmations, except from Lily, who said, "No, I'm not that hungry anyway. I'm going to start the Charms homework instead." she waved goodbye to the group that were departing for the stairs, and started back up the corridor towards the portrait-hole.

"You coming, Prongs?" called Peter.

"Nah, Wormtail, I'm going to head back too. I'll hit the kitchens later."

They disappeared, the sound of their laughter and chatter sinking into the background. James turned, and hurried after Lily.

"Bet you didn't think you'd be doing that about six o'clock." he quipped, catching up to her.

"Nope, that was definitely _not _how I saw my evening turning out. You ready for the Prefect meeting at seven?"

"Yeah," he said, through in truth he had totally forgotten about it, "Any thoughts?"

"Not really, I thought we'd let the Prefects do the thinking."

"I like your style, Lily." he cracked.

Lily looked at him curiously, and he realised he had called her by her first name. He decided he preferred it infinitely to calling her 'Evans'.

"Quidditch match against Ravenclaw next weekend. You going to be there?" James asked, casting around for a subject. He had wanted to talk to her about something entirely more important, but now he was alone with her, he had lost his bottle.

_Gryffindor my arse!_ his subconscious screamed at him, but it didn't encourage him a jot.

"Yeah, I usually go. Team's looking pretty good so far this year, beat Hufflepuff handily, you flew really well."

James felt his spirits lift as she praised him. He shrugged modestly, though in truth he had played well, scoring eight times. Definitely one of his better games.

"Castor played well too, snagging the Snitch like that. I didn't think he was going to make it."

"Me neither." Lily agreed.

James had plucked up enough courage to say what was on his mind, and almost did until the Fat Lady demanded the password. Lily gave it to her – Wildebeest – and the moment for courage was gone. He swore inwardly. Still, the night was young.

"See you at seven, then." he said unhappily, and made for the boy's stairs.

"Want to meet here at twenty to? It'd probably be good to get their early." Lily called after him.

"Yeah, sure. See you."

Lily Evans ascended to the seventh-year girl's dormitory and crossed to her bed, collapsing onto it in the half-light, and staring at the ceiling, where she had pinned a large black poster that had _Pink Floyd _scrawled across it in big, bulbous letters. She smiled up at it absent-mindedly, and began humming to herself quietly.

"_So...so you think you can tell,_

_Heaven from Hell,_

_Blue skies from pain..._

_Can you tell a green field,_

_from a cold steel rail..."_

She trailed off, peering around the twilit dormitory with her mind on something, but it took her a moment to realise what.

James Potter.

She was somewhat put out by the realisation, but she realised that it had been lurking in the back of her head since she had seen him tracing her initials on the edge of his parchment. For a moment she felt foolish, suddenly thinking she might be flattering herself. After all, L.E. could stand for any number of things, couldn't it?

And yet somehow she knew that it did not. She had known, of course, since fourth year that Potter fancied her, but she had never thought about it as 'proper fancying' so to speak – she had seen it as him wanting to add her to his list of conquests, or wanting her because he couldn't have her, but that didn't seem right anymore. He had been daydreaming as he printed her initials distractedly, over and over. That implied a depth of thought about his emotions that she had frankly never credited him with. She felt a fleeting sense of guilt but quashed it. He had, in fairness, never done a damn thing to _make _her credit him with it until now. He was always running his hand through his hair, or messing around with that bloody snitch -

And yet, even as she thought it, she realised that in the term before Christmas, she had seen those things differently. He seemed to only push his hand through his hair as a kind of nervous thing; and her earlier judgement that he had been doing it to make it look as though he had just got off his broom seemed apocryphal considering that, when she thought about it, she had never once seen his hair flat and tidy in nearly seven years of being around him. And she had not seen the snitch at all this year. These things seemed like an even bigger change when you also factored in that he had only very rarely been in trouble in his seventh year, and those few times he had, it was for minor japes, nothing in the same league as levitating Snape and bullying him. It was a change, and a likeable one.

She was still thinking about James Potter when she heard noise boiling up from the common room as it refilled, and Marian Ross, Wendy Germaine, and Jessica Caldwell bustled into the room with Anna Nox and Claire Dylan close behind, the other seventh year girls who shared the dormitory.

"Thought you were starting Charms homework?" Marian asked cheekily, and Lily scowled at her.

"I decided on no homework tonight, actually." she said mock-haughtily.

"Stop the bloody presses! Lily Evans decided _against_ homework?" Jessica joined in. She pushed a lock of her charmed-purple hair out of her face and sat lightly at the end of Lily's bed.

"It's not that shocking!" Lily cried, offended.

"Its not that you can't have a good time Lily, its that you so often put it off, rather than doing the irresponsible thing." Marian put in, tossing her book-bag onto her bed and heading into the open door of the bathroom, where she examined her hair critically, as she did with almost every open moment.

"Why is that a problem?" Lily demanded.

"Because you're seventeen, so irresponsible should be a way of life." Wendy said matter-of-factly, busying herself with a homework-planner. "Its six-thirty-five by the way." She was only too aware of Lily's penchant for earliness.

"Shit!" announced Lily and leapt from her bed to straighten up, taking a brush to her hair rapidly and disappearing through the door in less than a minute.

In the wake of her departure, the five girls left in the room looked at each other.

"Much too responsible. I can't say I like it." Jessica decided.

James had waited in the common room since about six-twenty, unable to contain himself longer than that. He had asked Lily out a hundred times, and he had been shot down a hundred times, but this time, for some reason, he had a good feeling. Today had been a weird one, mainly thanks to Domingo, and he thought that while strange things were happening, stranger things might be just around the corner – stranger things like Lily actually saying yes for a change.

After the Prefect meeting. That was the time. They would be alone, both heading in the same direction. His palms were sweaty just thinking about it.

Lily descended the stairs with a hasty greeting, and they made their way out of the portrait-hole towards an empty classroom on the fourth floor that they often used for the meetings. They said little on the way there – James thinking of what to say later, Lily thinking of what they were going to say in the meeting itself.

In the end it was fairly standard stuff. The Prefects heaped in, James and Lily doled out patrols on the fly, while Remus, one of the Gryffindor prefects who had piled in with the rest, twenty minutes after them, looked at James appraisingly, as though he could tell he was nervous as hell. When everyone had made their various complaints, and they had been addressed, the two Heads dismissed them all back to their various common rooms. The first meeting after Christmas was rarely a world-beater. By this point in the year the recurring Prefect post-curfew patrols and things had been organised fairly well.

Remus looked like he was going to hang back at the end of the meeting, but James shooed him out while Lily wasn't looking, and the boy spread his hands in a gesture of surrender and backed out of the room.

Lily smiled at him briefly as he held the door for her a couple of silent minutes later.

They walked side-by-side for a couple of minutes before he said anything.

"L-listen, L-lily..." he stammered, "I was thinking..."

Alarm bells rang in Lily's head and she intercepted his question.

"Potter, don't do this, we've got on really well today." she said, self-assuredly, in a way that brooked no argument.

James forged grimly on.

"I was thinking that the next Hogsmeade trip, we should maybe go together." he finished in a rush, and she stopped walking, looked away.

"Potter, no. Look I'm very impressed that you've changed so much since sixth-year; fifth, really, I swear I am, but I don't think that would be a good idea." she tried to sound kind, and reasonable, but he looked wounded nonetheless.

James could feel that same despair welling up in his stomach, that same creeping feeling of depression that gripped him every time she turned him down. Lily ran a hand through her hair in a gesture eerily reminiscent of James in a state of anxiety.

"Okay, Lily. I'll make you a deal." he said before he had really thought about it. "Go with me, next Hogsmeade trip. Just one Saturday of your life, and I'll never bring this up again."

"James -"

"Lily, it's one Saturday; just give me a chance."

She looked at him for a while, as though searching for something. There was softness in her eyes now, and he dared to think that he may have cracked it; even if he _had _had to go all-or-nothing to do it.

"Okay, James. Deal." she smiled sheepishly at him, and he found himself beaming at her, his spirits quite restored. He felt something come alive in the cavity of his chest, something vast and wonderful.

"Great. Really great." he said contentedly. All his earlier fears seemed to melt away in a blaze of excitement as he tried and failed not to get his hopes up.

Lily couldn't help but be amused at his enthusiasm, and for the first time in his life, he received the full radiance of her incredible smile, and he somehow felt warmer. She turned away, and began to walk up the corridor, and for a moment James just stared after her.

"Are you coming? Or are you going to stand in the corridor all night?"

James rushed after her.

An hour later, James was sitting in his dormitory with his acoustic guitar across his knees. He had studied Muggle Music in sixth year, but had given it up in seventh – it hadn't really been about the kind of music he was into. It was a lot of classical, which left James cold. He tuned his bottom E string, and plucked it to see if he'd got it. The tone that issued from the string was good, and he began to pluck aimlessly, then found himself settling on something. Remus lay on his bed, reading that day's Daily Prophet because he had missed it earlier; Peter was snoring loudly in the corner, and James had used the spell _muffliato _to avoid waking him. Sirius was rummaging in his trunk for something.

James played a few chords of something Sirius didn't recognise as he reached into the very bottom of his haphazardly-packed trunk.

"_Can you tell a green field, _

_from a cold steel rail,_

_A smile from a veil?"_

"_Do you think you can tell?"_

A pause as his strumming picked up a little, increasing in pace.

"_Did they get you to trade,_

_Your heroes for ghosts?"_

He stopped abruptly.

"I asked Lily out today."

Sirius groaned, and Remus let out a short laugh.

"You shock me, Prongs, you really do. First proper day back. That's promptness for you." Moony asserted.

"She said yes, this time. After some persuading." Remus looked at him with a mix of shock and disbelief.

"Okay," James conceded, "After some borderline begging."

Remus shook his head, and looked back at his newspaper.

"Nice one mate, why aren't you more chuffed?" Sirius asked from within his trunk.

James thought about it.

"Because I'm pretty much all-in here. I just asked her for a chance, and I'd leave her alone about it if it didn't go well." he paused for a moment, still considering his words. "So now I'm shitting it, because it seems, now that I'm over the initial euphoria, like a massively bad call, as I can be somewhat of an acquired taste."

"Nah, you'll be fine mate. You'll have ten kids and a pet llama or something by the end of the year." Sirius muttered again.

James blinked at Sirius, who now looked like his trunk was eating him.

"What? Why a llama? Sirius, if you ask Wobbly to bring you a llama, I will strap you onto it and send it galloping into the forbidden forest!" Remus had sat up and was pointing at Sirius, who had returned from the trunk of no return, looking quizzical.

"Does a llama gallop?" he asked, and Remus, for what felt like the millionth time since he had known Sirius, put his face in his hands.

"I don't know. Trot, maybe, but I can't see it galloping." James put in, equally interested.

"Oh Merlin, I just have to find that out." Sirius grinned and dove back into his trunk.

Remus was silent for a moment. Then,

"Damn it, that's going to _kill _me now."

"Well we can't have that!" burst out Sirius, re-emerging once again. "Tomorrow morning, at first light, the Quest for the Galloping Llama begins!" and with that announcement, he returned to the depths.

"Sirius, what the hell are you looking for?" James finally asked, suspiciously.

"Nothing; I'm clearing a big enough space to fit myself into."

"Why?" James and Remus asked in unison, their tones equally uncertain.

Sirius gave a small cry as he banged his head against the lid of the trunk.

"It's an hour, isn't it." he claimed, before standing and put one foot inside the trunk, followed by the other, so that he was sitting on the edge of it. Then bracing himself on the edge, he slid down into the space he had created in the deep trunk, curling up inside and completely disappearing from view.

James and Remus were unsure of what to say or do to that.

Author's Note: Please keep reviewing guys, I need the help! Any and all constructive criticism is welcome.


	4. The Llama That Pronked

_The Llama That Pronked_

_(A/N: Hope you enjoy this chapter, and remember, please review!)_

The next morning came and as Castor and Martin headed down to breakfast, the Marauders were alarmed to find Sirius had already disappeared. After quickly checking the burrow-hole in his trunk to ensure he hadn't slept in there (or become stuck, which was equally likely) they could find no trace of Padfoot, and so they gave up worrying and tried 'uninterested' instead. This suited them all far better, and so after a swift and for once uneventful breakfast, they began the general drudgery that is associated with even the most bizarre schoolday. James sat through Charms in the morning and felt that he had been terribly unlucky not to have been placed in the same set as Evans. He was, however in the same set as Sirius, who had evidently not deemed it important to show his face in his NEWT class. In the free period that followed, rather than wasting his time, say, studying, he searched the castle top to bottom for his missing friend instead. He checked the Astronomy Tower, broom cupboards, classrooms, anywhere Sirius liked to take girls in fact, and when he found himself Padfootless on his way to his next lesson, he began to worry. Had he wandered into the Forbidden Forest and been devoured by something? Had he declared a portion of the grounds an independent country, crowned himself its monarch, and seceded immediately from the United Kingdom, therefore entering into a violent, though admittedly small-scale rebellion against the Ministry of Magic? Had he gotten lost again?

As he entered the DADA classroom for the second time in two days, and found that once again, a class was _sans_-Padfoot, the worry deepened, and uncharacteristically, he barely spared Lily a glance except to smile at her as he sat down, something her friend Wendy noticed, and at which she got mid-way through rolling her eyes before she noticed Lily smile back at him.

James sat in an empty seat next to a Ravenclaw called Gibbert, who looked surprised to find himself in some company, as he often sat alone. James nodded at him, and he nodded back, bemused – he was rather pale, red-haired and quiet, and often found himself the butt of unfair jokes rather than acknowledged courteously.

James leaned over and nudged Remus, who was nudging Peter, who was oblivious even though Tyburn was directly addressing him.

"Mr. Pettigrew. Mr. Pettigrew. PETER PETTIGREW!" the DADA teacher burst out and suddenly Peter jumped in his seat.

"Yes sir?" he squeaked, as Remus snarled something at the desk that sounded suspiciously like 'Sure, he gets you to listen'.

"Were you listening? Tyburn asked, his dark eyes fixed on Peter.

"Of course, sir."

"Then how would one repel a Lethifold?" he looked almost predatory in his desire to prove Peter to be in the wrong, and for a moment, even James thought he looked a little vampiric. Peter struggled uncomfortably for a moment.

"Errr...leg it?" he offered, attempting to grin. Professor Tyburn looked at him blankly.

"Leg it." he repeated slowly, and Peter nodded, emboldened.

"Yeah. You know, do a bunk. Errr...scarper?" he ventured.

"I flatter myself that I understand your terminology, Mr. Pettigrew. But the Lethifold attacks while you are sleeping. So unless you are some kind of somnambulist you have little chance of merely escaping it. However, if you were not fully asleep when it attacked, or if you awoke once the Lethifold was upon you, and you had your wand to hand, how would you see it off?"

Peter looked around out of the corners of his eyes. James caught his panicked gaze and did his best to mime a Patronus leaping from the tip of his wand. It was a difficult thing to mime, and so Prongs felt that Peter could not be fairly blamed for saying;

"Spray water at it?"

There was immediate laughter, but Tyburn hushed the class.

"You know, like when you chase a cat or a dog away from something." Peter forged on. Tyburn raised his hand to hush Peter too.

"I think I'll save you some embarrassment if I simply tell you Peter that that is not correct; you will write me a foot of parchment on the history and properties of the Lethifold, as well as methods to repel it and to guard a home against it, for our next lesson if you please."

"Yes sir." he grumbled as Remus patted him consolingly on the shoulder. Now Tyburn's gaze was elsewhere, James nudged Remus again.

"What James?" he whispered.

"I've lost Padfoot." James said concisely.

"What do you mean you've lost him? He's not a school book or a pet, James, you can't just have lost him."

"I think he's wandered off."

"Wandered off? Didn't I just tell you he isn't a pet? I'm sure he's fine." Remus retorted.

"He's not in any of his usual haunts." James continued regardless.

"You mean the various places he takes girls?"

"Exactly. And he wasn't in Charms, and he isn't here now."

"Are you guys talking about Sirius?" Peter interjected, and the two boys nodded. Then, Gibbert surprised them by speaking up.

"I've seen Sirius." his voice was deep, which they hadn't expected.

"Whereabouts?"James asked, relieved.

"He was in the library."

Remus shot James a disparaging look. James looked back, apologetically.

"I'll level with you, Moony. It never in a million years would have occurred to me to look for him there. Its public, and he'd likely get caught if he took a girl there. Lets face it, the books don't really interest him at all."

Remus conceded.

"Understandable."

"He was all over the books earlier. He kept muttering to himself. It was weird." Gibbert continued, looking discomfited.

James stared at him, awestruck.

"This bears further investigation." he said decisively and at the end of the lesson, that is precisely what he had in his mind. He bid farewell to Remus and Peter, who went down to lunch, and went to the library to seek out Sirius.

He found him under the watchful, but concerned eye of Madam Pince, who seemed troubled at the muttering wreck of a boy the student had become, walled in as he was on three sides by books about varying magical creatures. The hushed room was somewhat eerie because of it, despite the grey sky beyond the windows.

"Sirius?" he asked softly, approaching the table through throngs of working students who were shooting anxious glances at Sirius. "Are you alright mate?"

"All of these books." Sirius said it so quietly that James almost didn't catch it.

"What about them, Padfoot?"

"They're useless, all of them. Every single one. Thousands of tomes, and I can't find the llama!"

For a moment, James was nonplussed, then the night before came rushing back to him.

"Are you trying to find out if a llama gallops?" he asked, not surprised in the slightest. Understanding hit him like a bolt of lightning.

"Is this where you've been all morning? You'll never find it here, mate. This is a library singularly to do with magical study. Even the Muggle Studies books won't help you mate. Now come and have some lunch."

"No! I have to keep looking. I know! I'll ask the muggle-borns."

James tried to stop him, but to no avail. He began darting around the library, asking kids if they were muggle-born. Mostly they were just frightened or bemused. Thankfully, none were offended. Inside of two minutes, they both found themselves ejected from the library for disturbing everyone by a frantic Pince.

"Well that only looked a little bit like a nervous breakdown mate." James said as they walked to the Great Hall, trying to look on the bright side. Sirius was not listening.

"Reg Swarley will know. You know, that Hufflepuff? Sixth year. He's on the Quidditch Team, and _he's _muggle-born and his parents own a farm I'm sure they do."

"That doesn't necessarily make him an expert on all non-magical animals, Sirius."

"It makes him close enough!" Padfoot demanded, and then split away from James, his attention drawn instantly away from llamas and their gaits. James looked up and saw Wendy Germaine coming the other way down the corridor, her dark hair flicking as she greeted Sirius.

James smiled and went on without him.

Sirius did in fact turn up for further lessons, Transfiguration after lunch, and History of Magic once again last thing. It was after dinner that he retired to the dormitory with a half-dozen library books, including _Creatures, Magical and Non-Magical; a Comparison_.

"He's dangerously obsessed. I haven't seen him like this since the 'What is the plural of Moose?' incident." Peter said as he, Remus and James sat around in front of the fireplace.

"I told him it was just Moose, like the singular." Remus said sadly.

"He didn't listen. 'Meese, it has to be' he said. 'The plural of Goose is Geese so it just stands to reason' he said. Then he was really pissed off and disappointed when he found out we were serious." James added, completing their lament.

"This shouldn't devastate him nearly as much, but its going to get worse before it gets better. And that means drastic action. We are going to have to find out whether a llama gallops. But first; I have a double free tomorrow morning, what about you guys?" Remus put in. Peter replied in the affirmative, and James cottoned on instantly.

"Yeah, Remus, me too. Good call, by the way."

"You say it like its uncommon." Remus replied smugly and got to his feet.

James darted up the stairwell and threw open the door to the seventh year dormitory.

"Sirius."

"Go away, James. Nothing you can say or do will move me from this room." Sirius said without looking up from the thick book in his lap.

"Fancy a pint?"

The book slammed shut with an echoing report, and Sirius rose from his bed, hurriedly beginning to change into ordinary clothes.

"Well played." he said, his voice muffled as he hauled his robes over his head. James grabbed a pair of jeans and a t-shirt and strode into the bathroom to change as he heard Remus and Peter shuffle through the dormitory door.

They left under James's invisibility cloak, their ankles showing with their seventh-year height, but nobody in the packed common room noticing. Some looked up when the portrait of the Fat Lady swung open and then closed for no particular reason, but they forgot about it quickly enough as the James, Sirius and Remus hurried on, Peter in his rat form clasped in Remus's hand. He often ruminated on the risks they had all taken in order to make his transformations easier. He felt a rush of warmth towards his friends, particularly Peter, who had never been a strong student, who had, with their help, mastered this most difficult of magical procedures, for Remus.

"Remus, you're lagging." James whispered urgently, and he breathed an apology. They sped up.

They came out at the statue of the 'one-eyed witch', or Gunhilda of Gorsemoor as Remus had insisted they refer to her, and they threw off the cloak. James tapped the witch's hump with his wand.

"_Dissendium_." he said clearly and the statue's hump slid open to reveal the short slide to the passage below. Sirius led the way, followed by Remus, still clutching Peter. James looked both ways down the corridor, and then leapt in after them, the hump sliding closed behind him, shutting out the light. Soon he was sitting on a stack of boys who had proved less than sure-footed.

"Sirius, why didn't you move?" Remus barked.

"You came down too fast. By the way, your elbow is worryingly close to my unmentionables."

"Oh Merlin, James, get up!"

"I'm trying!"

"Where's Peter?"

This last from Sirius panicked them all. They righted themselves as abruptly as possible, scared that they had crushed their smallest friend in the catastrophic landing. Then, James felt something clawing at the leg of his jeans.

"_Lumos_." he said gratefully, then reached down and picked up the trembling rodent. The dull light from his wand-tip shone in his black eyes.

Once Peter was picking himself up off the floor again, transformed back into his human self, they all conjured light from their wands and began the trek to Hogsmeade, or more specifically, the cellar of Honeydukes. It took a good hour, as it always did and it was almost eight o'clock when they emerged into the dark basement, packed with stacked boxes of a multitude of bizarre confections. They hurriedly made their way to the creaking staircase and crept up it. Sirius drew his penknife, a magical implement that would open any lock, and fit it between the door and the frame. It clicked, and they slid through one by one and made for the front door through the silent shop. Remus closed the cellar door and re-locked it with a quiet spell.

They repeated the process on the front door and emerged into a street slushy with melting snow. Loud music and laughter could be heard from the Three Broomsticks further down the main street, and as one the lads, hands stuffed into their pockets against the cold, marched towards it, mischief in their eyes.

They stepped over the threshold into the warm, busy interior, the flickering golden fire-light that filled the interior both welcoming and encouraging. They made straight for the bar, edging through the crowds, shouting friendly apologies over the pleasant noise to anyone's arm they jogged who was holding a drink. Peter got there first, his hand reaching for the change in his pocket. Madam Rosmerta, blonde and attractive, leaned over the bar with a coy smile.

"Do the four of you have permission to be out this late?" she quipped, and Peter laughed. It was a customary joke, had been since they had started their pub-related outings in sixth year, and she did not expect an answer. "What can I get you, Peter?"

"Four pints of mead please Rosmerta." he said quickly and she set about pouring their drinks from a cask on a rack behind the bar.

Sirius leaned on the bar next to him, past an older gent nursing a fire whiskey, clapping Peter on the back.

"You're very kind mate, next round's mine."

James stepped up next to Peter on the other side, and Remus stood behind. After a moment, Rosmerta came back with two warm tankards and went to fill two more. James pushed one into Peter's eager grasp and then lifted one over his head to pass to Remus who accepted it with gusto. The next pair of pints appeared and James and Sirius grasped the tankards by their metal handles.

"And yours, Rosmerta." Peter said, slapping a number of Sickles onto the surface of the counter.

"Thanks, hon." she said cheerfully and took the necessary coins and a small tip. The rest she pushed back towards him.

"Cheers, lads." James declared and they clashed the tankards together before taking generous gulps. Remus wiped his mouth with the back of his hand.

"We've already got some of your lot in here tonight. Do you know them?" Rosmerta asked, nodding at the back corner, and pointing past Peter's shoulder.

The four followed her finger and found themselves looking at a corner booth hidden behind a trio of laughing middle-aged witches, who at that moment happened to finish their drinks and move out of their line of sight. There, in a corner booth, sat four Gryffindor girls. Marian Ross, Wendy Germaine, and Jessica Caldwell, and there, in the very corner with a redcurrant rum in front of her, sat Lily Evans, giggling at something Jessica had just said, covering her mouth with a perfect hand.

James was taking another gulp of his pint and nearly choked. This too had been a loaded question on Rosmerta's part. She knew full well of James's attraction to a redhead he had described often, and though Rosmerta did not know that this redhead in particular was Lily Evans, she could make an educated guess based on the fact he was now half-wearing his mead. She laughed and moved off down the bar to serve a beckoning patron.

"Smooth, mate." Peter stated, sarcastically. James shot him a withering look.

"Well, come on then." Sirius said, as though they were insane.

"Come on and do what?" Remus asked, uncomprehending. Sirius rubbed his hands together like a king at a feast.

"I see four ladies without an escort. Just think of the ruffians they may be beset by! It would be unkind – nay! Ungentlemanly! To leave them in...well..." he cast around for an eloquent finish, and failed to find one, "...the lurch." he finished lamely, instead.

There was a silent moment as they all considered how well he had started the sentence and how badly he'd ended it. Then they returned to normal.

"Well in that case, I suppose it would be rude not to." James acquiesced quickly.

"Rude indeed." Peter agreed nervously. He had never been able to talk to girls, but with Sirius at the table he would generally do marginally better – having a friend's support in the matter was always a boost.

Remus simply shook his head and followed with a half-smile on his face as they made their way over. Halfway there, Sirius hurried back to lunge between two men at the bar. Rosmerta looked at him, critical but amused, as the men either side of him gave shouts of protest. There were silver Sickles in Padfoot's hand when he brought it onto the counter.

"I'd best take another round over, Rosmerta. I've got a thirst on." he said with a grin. The grin was infectious and she returned it as she reached under the bar and produced a rectangular tray, and fetched more tankards and mead.

"Evening all!" Remus said brightly as they reached the booth in which the girls sat.

"Hi Remus. Terrible, to find a Prefect shunning the rules like this." Lily said her voice stern, but her eyes amused.

"Well, I won't tell if you don't." he joked back, and Marian shifted along on the seat to allow her to sit down. He dropped into the seat and took a long sip of his mead. As Peter and James approached, grinning, there was more shuffling so that the girls were in the corner, Lily in the middle of them. Sirius approached with a tray of tankards and dropped heavily into the remaining four inches of space. It was a squeeze, but all could easily reach their drinks, and that was really the sole concern.

"So!" he began loudly, "What are you lot up to this evening?" he directed his question to all the girls, but he was looking at Wendy, who beamed at him.

"Having a nice time until you turned up." Jessica said drolly. Sirius laughed.

"Guys, why do I keep hearing that?" he asked his fellow Marauders, eyes wide.

"Because you've made getting on people's nerves an art form." Peter said quickly, to appreciative laughter.

"Well, an artist is never appreciated in his own time." Sirius continued, mirth in his eyes.

"No Sirius, it's _our _time we don't appreciate you in – you can amuse yourself in your own time all you like." Marian quipped. James had been drinking mead as she spoke and he nearly choked on it. Peter thumped him on the back as he reached for one of the four pints on the tray, switching it for his own empty tankard. Remus did the same.

"You wound me!" Sirius said melodramatically and then he and James together drained the remains of their first pints and reached for their second ones.

"So what were you ladies doing before we declared open-season on Sirius?" Remus asked.

"Mainly wishing we could declare open-season on Sirius," Jessica answered, "But also playing Berry Ocky Rot."

"Berry Ocky Rot?" James echoed, intrigued.

"Drinking game. You usually play it with the _drink _Berry Ocky Rot of course, but none of us fancied it." Wendy shook her own redcurrant rum and drank some. "You go around clockwise in sequence saying 'Berry Ocky Rot' until someone gets it wrong. They have to drink, and then they have to say 'Rerry Ocky Bot' instead. Then you go anticlockwise saying that until someone gets it wrong again. They drink, and then you're back to 'Berry Ocky Rot'."

"Want to play?" Lily said mischievously.

"Cool." James and Sirius said together.

"I'll start." Marian interjected, "Berry Ocky Rot."

"Berry Ocky Rot." Remus repeated.

"Berry Ocky Rot." James said.

"That's easy. Berry Ocky Bot!" declared Sirius.

"Apparently not mate. Drink." Peter told him. Sirius looked unsure for a moment, then thought back on what he had said.

"Oh, bugger it." he said and everyone sniggered as he took a deep draught of the mead in his tankard. "Rerry Ocky Bot." he started again.

"Rerry Ocky Bot." James followed.

"Rerry Ocky Bot."

It ran around the table to Peter, who was on Sirius's right side, next to Wendy.

"Rerry Ocky Rock. Shit!" the smaller boy took a draught of his own mead.

The game swung back and forth, and as everybody drank more, they began to get the tongue-twister wrong more and more often and so the drinks flowed.

James was returning from the bar with another laden tray when he heard Sirius ask the inevitable question.

"Does a llama gallop do you reckon?"

James's heart sank. He had banked on the drinking game keeping them going a little while longer, distracting him from his so-called quest, but now here they were with the 'Moose' problem all over again, only now they were all a little drunk to make things extra confusing. He advanced on the booth, putting the tray in the middle so everyone could reach their drinks, redcurrant rums for the girls, mead for the lads. Then something thoroughly unexpected occurred. Wendy saved them all in the most matter-of-fact and detailed way they could possibly have asked for.

"Actually Sirius, the llama has five gaits; walk, pace, trot, gallop and pronk."

Silence descended on the table like a falling blanket. James sat down carefully, as though afraid of shattering it, of rendering such a timely solution void by drowning it out.

Sirius was speechless. His lips moved without sound coming out.

"P...pronk?" he said eventually, and Wendy nodded knowledgeably.

Silence again.

"Feel like going out with me, Wendy?" he asked suddenly.

"Can't hurt." she answered, and smiles slid across both of their faces.

"Excellent." Sirius said, his face split almost entirely in two. "Now, drinks! Who did we get up to?"

"You Sirius, and you got it wrong, don't think we've forgotten." Remus said, slurring a little.

They half-staggered out into the snow a little more than three hours later when Madam Rosmerta announced chucking-out time. Sirius led the way, Wendy's arm through his, the two conversing quietly. Then came Peter and Remus laughing with Marian and Jessica, and, behind the others, James and Lily in companionable silence. Sirius's voice drifted back to them.

"Great evening. Had a few pints, got a date, and completed my llama-related quest. I'm like a successful adventurer, I'm like...the llama that pronked!"

James saw him thrust a triumphant fist into the air and chortled. He heard Wendy giggle too, and then Sirius's voice ebbed into conspiratorial whispers again.

"What's with the quest?" Lily asked him.

"Something he got into his head last night. This wasn't so bad, it was resolved in twenty-four hours. Usually it takes like a month. He was really taken with this quest too, so I'm grateful Wendy headed him off. He went to the library and everything."

"Scary." Lily agreed. Her foot slipped in the snow, and James grabbed her shoulder before she could fall over.

"Thanks." she said hurriedly, colouring.

"No problem." James could feel himself growing steadily goofier and so he kept his mouth shut for a while.

"So. Sneak down here often?" he said eventually, and Lily coloured more.

"Not often, just every now and then."

"In case you hadn't noticed Lily, I'm out here too, you don't have to defend yourself to me."

She reconsidered.

"Well yeah, quite often." she said, embarrassed. "Not as much as the other three, but pretty often."

"Ah Lily, I feel like I learn something new about you every day you little hellion. First helping us conceal a contraband sea-mammal, now sneaking into Hogsmeade on the lash!"

"Yeah, I'm a rebel without a clue."

They reached the front of Honeydukes and Sirius got to work on the door.

"How do you guys know about the secret passage?" Sirius asked them as he slid the knife into the frame.

"Katya Kane told us about it in sixth year, just before she left. How do you guys know about it?" Jessica looked suspicious.

"Extensive night-time wanderings. Think we discovered this one in...what...second year?" Peter put in.

"Yeah, I think so. Discovered this one in second-year, and the big one on the third floor in fourth." Remus added.

"On the _third _floor. Where?" Wendy asked interestedly.

"I'll take you there sometime." Sirius grinned, and Remus hit him on the shoulder.

"Hurry up, Casanova. I'm freezing my balls off here."

"Alright, Moony, alright..." he said, rolling his eyes and then the door popped open.

They stepped through.

"_Colloportus_." Remus muttered, pointing his wand at the door once they were inside.

"_Alohomora_." Lily opened the door to the cellar.

"That's no fun." Sirius grumbled, stowing away his pocket knife in his jeans.

They went down the cellar stairs, sealing the door again behind them, and entered the tunnel back to school, their wands illuminated, the tips like fireflies in a single-file line.

From the shadows, he watched them. He was in a darkened classroom opposite the statue of the hump-backed witch with the eye-patch and had been since they had left. He had seen the Marauders follow them down and had not been the least bit surprised. He had known, since he had seen them in the corridor, talking, that when the two of them laughed together, they laughed at him. Laughed about her casual betrayal of his affections. The looks they had shared, the way she greeted him when they passed in the corridor, she felt it too, he _knew _she did and now she wasn't just hurting him she was hurting _herself _by settling for the arrogant one, the stupid one. Did she not think herself good enough for him? Did she not think herself worthy? He watched, his eyes glinting in the light of their wands as they emerged one by one into the corridor, and extinguished them. They wouldn't see, they never saw. Nobody did. Not really.

He longed to take her in his arms and whisper to her that she _was _worthy, that she was perfect. To kiss those lips, to stroke her hair...how long would he have to wait for her to realise that they were supposed to be together? He could hear them talking an guffawing like the idiots they were, muffled mercifully by the closed door. Then they moved off up the dark and silent corridor as the last wand went out. He realised his fingers were clenched so hard on the edge of the desk on which he sat that his knuckles were white. He took a deep, calming breath, let his rage seep away like he had been taught. Then he removed his hands from the desk and wrung them in front of him.

He was shaking with anger again. He took several more breaths, gulped cool air like a man dying of thirst gulps water. He moved to the door, pressed his face to the glass and looked left and right. They were gone. He opened the classroom door, and departed.


End file.
